The study of the acute pharmacology of experimental spinal cord injury has been advanced by the discovery of a number of seemingly unrelated therapeutic substances. Thus, opioid antagonists, TRH analogs, antioxidants and excitatory amino acid antagonists have been identified as potential treatments of acute injury. Results obtained using calcium channel blockers have been equivocal, however, none have been developed for this indication. Serotonin antagonists have not been studied in traumas, but have shown positive results in ischemic models of injury.
Serotonin (5-Hydroxy Tryptamine, 5-HT) has been identified to be an important component of secondary spinal trauma. Serotonin appears to form a vital link between the vascular and neural consequences of injury. Positive results have already been obtained using several 5HT.sub.2 antagonists, including (S)-emopamil.
What is needed in this art are new approaches to treating spinal cord trauma. The combination of calcium channel blocking with 5HT.sub.2 antagonist properties constitutes a most promising approach, for the treatment of acute neural injury to the spinal cord of varying etiologies.